Imagine inheriting gently used Halloween costumes for your children every year. No shopping, no sewing, and no innovating with tinfoil and cardboard boxes. That was the vision of the people over at Green Halloween, a fabulous little site packed with all sorts of eco-friendly resources for your celebration this year. They came up with National Costume Swap Day, a free event where people can bring their old Halloween costumes and swap them for new ones without paying a dime. Since the official date is October 9, 2010, you probably missed the local Halloween costume swap in your area this year, but you will still be able to participate in the online Halloween costume swap for a few more weeks.

Is it possible to have a wickedly wonderful Halloween without disposable costumes, expensive candy, and ultra sugar highs? Yes! You could …

A. Move to another country
B. Hibernate
C. Join a commune

Kidding—but seriously, there are a few ways to limit the cost and eco-impact of this year.

Tricks:

Throw a Halloween party: Our friends are going to celebrate the holiday with a party, allowing them to skip late night trick-or-treating with their children and manage the sugar factor a bit. I’ll have to pass along Rebecca’s recipe for wholesome pumpkin bars so they’ll have an easy treat that the kids can enjoy.

Manage the candy: We are planning on going trick-or-treating this year, but we’re just going to a few houses and limiting my son’s candy. We haven’t yet decided whether to let him gorge for one night and then give the rest of the candy to our co-workers, or provide a piece of candy to him daily for awhile. Option number one lets him enjoy and then get back to healthy habits but option number two might entail a huge stomachache and a late bedtime. What do you do about this?